Tales from the “White Hart”
Arthur C. Clarke

This book is actually a collection of short stories, all of them involving a group of British scientists and writers who gather at a pub called The White Hart, and the resident Scheherazade: Henry Purvis, a man of uncertain origins and tremendous chutzpah, whose tall tales no one has yet quite managed to prove false. The stories, which cover a wide range of probability, all have a dry sense of humor. The pacifist computer, the accidental death-ray, the unfortunate experiment in antigravity–the book is full of whacky ideas charmingly told. It’s not deep or brilliantly written, but it’s sure fun.

There’s not a whole lot of moral content to this book one way or the other.